Buckingham Palace to go solar?

It has been revealed by the Treasury that Buckingham Palace is to receive a ten-year £369 million refurbishment.

The work is scheduled to begin in April 2017 and has been scheduled due to the need for urgent repairs. The large scale refurbishment is the biggest undertaken on the iconic London building since the Second World War. Plans involve work on the 33-year-old boilers, 100 miles of electrical cable, some of it 60 years old, and 20 miles of lead and cast iron pipework.

Amongst the report by the Royal Trustees there was a section including energy efficiency improvements. So, what are the plans to improve energy efficiency at Buckingham Palace?

Buckingham Palace – energy efficiency

The report details a number of alternative energy sources that could be implemented to support mains power. Solar PV panels and an aerobic digestion unit have been included in the programme.

It has been proposed that the flat areas of the Palace could receive solar panels so that they are not visible from ground level – this would produce around five per cent of the building’s total energy demand. The palace has 775 rooms, 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and 78 bathrooms. And, as you would expect, uses a large amount of energy.

An aerobic digestion unit has also been suggested due to the technology being a “low capital cost solution” that would also reduce the carbon footprint by around five per cent.

The introduction of alternative energy sources will help towards reducing the building’s carbon footprint by an estimated 40 per cent.